Braider Blog

As an intro to next week's Product Hunt event, Big Door Network's Jessica Frech wrote us a few good words.

Every month we invite trending startups to show off their products to potential users, marketers, entrepreneurs, creators, and like minded individuals in an effort to gain user feedback. November's meetup is even more significant since partnering with BRAID to feature female founded companies.

In witnessing the recent national divide, we are now being called “to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek” (from Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech for the 2016 Presidential Election). Part of that responsibility includes shining a light, with bullhorn in hand, on the neglected or suppressed.

I could spend a quick thirty minutes in US Census Bureau records citing a list of numbers and variables that reflect the current situation of females in executive business roles, or I can assume that you hold a set of values that include awareness and discernment on the side of compassion, understanding, and fairness (I’ve chosen the latter). And rather than focusing on the struggle right now, I’d like more to quickly chat about why being a “female” founder matters.Every time a female founder is given the opportunity to share their story, a safe space for change is created. The spirit of breaking the status quo becomes less intimidating. Fears calculated by opposition are put back on the shelf. Action is encouraged. Communities are strengthened. Bravery is enlisted. The attributes required to start a business are unleashed in this “safe space” whereas before, they may have been suppressed by layers of “but you’re a mom”, “you can run a home, but you can’t run a business”, and “how many women actually get paid the same as C titled male executives” kind of rhetoric. If these are all solutions produced from one female founder’s story, then we need to do everything we can to cultivate more places, events, and situations where female founders can stand in the spotlight.

So show face. Take up the bullhorn. Yes, being a female founder matters.

“I believe we are stronger together and we will go forward together. And you should never, ever regret fighting for that” (from Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech for the 2016 Presidential Election).​Check out the list of kick-ass, women-ran startups below that’ll be featured at November’s Product Hunt meetup below: